


Dear (My) Dream

by daddyoungho



Series: book of soulmates [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Confident Lee Jeno, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Getting to Know Each Other, I wrote this on campus lol, Jaemin is shy sorta, Jeno is lowkey confident gay, M/M, Multi, Na Jaemin is Whipped, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Slow Build, Slow Romance, Soft Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Spin off of Colorful Chemistry, Tsundere Lee Jeno, mentioned markhyuck - Freeform, nomin, nomin are soft and weird, nomin vibes during lecture uh, very slight angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:02:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21668665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daddyoungho/pseuds/daddyoungho
Summary: Jeno’s arms are lazily crossed against his chest as he steadily observes Jaemin, finally speaking after a short moment, “You take a while, huh?”The younger flushes lightly, “N-No… I just don’t like the rush of the hallways, too many people.”Jeno doesn’t take it beyond a hum and a nod, lifting his own bag to his shoulder as he speaks again, “Come with me, to the donut shop right across. I want to eat something.”“Oh ok.” Jaemin says lamely, he doesn’t quite know this donut shop that Jeno was talking about.--The enigmatic Jeno thinks Jaemin is a subject worth his interest.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Series: book of soulmates [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1562137
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Dear (My) Dream

**Author's Note:**

> so !!! i wrote this while i had time after my lectures and decided, hey let's make a spin-off on that MarkHyuck soulmate au?? and thus, this piece was created ! i apologize in advance if there are mistakes or if it's rushed, it's 2am and i'm quite exhausted these days.

Jaemin cackles, “You’re wearing pink today.”

Mark blinks and looks down at his hoodie, not understanding his description because all he saw was a light gray.

“What’s pink?”

Renjun sighs and rolls his eyes dramatically, “You know- like bubblegum or flamingos? Pink lemonade?”

“Pink lemonade? But Johnny told me lemons were yellow- is he lying to me?”

And at first, it seemed comical, the way Mark’s eyes widened when he mentioned pink lemonade. But Jaemin and Renjun seemed to frown a bit sadly, trading glances at each other before they brush the topic off. Mark drops them off the same class and is mostly stuck waiting for that student that his former teacher told him about, it was already Friday which meant that he wouldn’t see the kid either and his teacher feels a bit embarrassed and sorry for the latter who continued their disappearing act.

It was the last class of the day and Jaemin and Renjun would have bolted out of the classroom had it not been for their stupid attendance policy, why couldn’t he just leave 10 minutes before class? Jaemin could only sigh as he slumped in his seat, eyes drooped in a bored stare as he sat in his designated seat.

Oh, but the class wasn’t all that terrible, Jaemin definitely wasn’t always up for the history lessons- because he was a nerd and quite frankly watched too many documentaries and films to even be in a class for it- but there was this one kid in class that Jaemin unabashedly stared at sometimes. Other days they’d make eye contact and Jaemin would send a small smile his way or wiggle-wave his fingers in greeting, but Jaemin had never made actual conversation with him nor approached him, he was somewhat between bold and shy, mostly teetering as if it was a mood. And it just so happens that the kid in subject walked in the class and the first thing he feels are Renjun’s big beady eyes staring him down from the other row, Jaemin smiles unknowingly and purses his lips awkwardly out of habit, returning Renjun’s stare with an incriminating smile.

Renjun mouths something towards him, ‘ _ Pretty boy. _ ’

The boy could also be Jaemin’s ‘potential’ crush, but because it was only a crush, Jaemin never acted on it because of his dreams. Almost every night it was a new memory to play with and he remembered each and every one of them, just last night he witnessed the memories of his soulmate during first year middle school, being whispered about amongst the student body as he silently made his way to his class- minding his business with a blank disposition. He experienced these memories in first person, as if he were his soulmate in his own dreams and he felt every drip of emotion from those memories. The one thing he could never figure out is who the person is, whose memories he was going through and it seemed that a lot of the memories he dreamed were somewhat sullen and not always pleasant. Jaemin, being the nurturing person he is, felt bad for his soulmate, whoever it was. It wasn’t fair for anyone to be going through less than good experiences during a majority of their childhood, while he wasn’t necessarily in love with the idea of his soulmate, he simply wanted to comfort this person he kept dreaming of.

Jaemin breaks his eye contact with the teasing Renjun as the pretty boy sits diagonal to Jaemin’s window seat, quietly placing his bag under the desk and sitting unceremoniously lax on his seat, slightly slouching and legs slightly spread. He sighs softly and pulled his phone out, but not before catching Jaemin’s twinkling eyes. This time around, Jaemin barely sends a smile- feeling quirky- and leans on his palm to look out the window, watching the leaves and branches sway in the breeze.

“Na Jaemin.”

To say that Jaemin was slightly surprised when he hears the deep voice of the boy call him, was an understatement. The boy was striking to the eye, had the features of a grown and handsome man, big inquisitive eyes, a sharp jawline and strong cheekbones- but extremely quiet- nobody knew much about him except for the fact that he looked brooding or even somewhat scary. Girls and guys flocked him alike, he seemed like the typical boy who’d ride out of campus with a Harley Davidson set and a pair of aviators. But really, Jaemin once saw him leave the campus with a pennyboard, as always, making Jaemin’s eyes sparkle from how mysterious and otherworldly the boy is for the last four years.

He turns his head slightly to make eye contact with those unpredictable dark eyes, humming meekly, “Yes, hyung?”

The handsome boy doesn’t respond for a moment and just stares at him so piercingly, “Just Jeno is fine, I don’t do formalities. You already know about our next prompt right? I want your help for it.”

And Jaemin’s wide eyes blink, a hilarious sight really, his lips in a slight pouty form from the surprise. Lee Jeno? Just asked for help- no- he wanted help? Jeno wanted help from the sappy Na Jaemin? Oh my god? Oh my god?!

Jaemin sits up straighter and clears his throat, he feels his fingers shake because of his nerves, glad that his surprise and embarrassment wasn’t too obvious, “Yeah, sure. I can do that, is there a portion of it that you’re not exactly sure of? I do have notes on it.”

“I don’t want the notes, I can’t learn off of reading a page, it doesn’t explain everything to me. The philosophy and religious parts make my head hurt just reading about it.” Jeno replies as quick as a snake would lunge.

It threw Jaemin off, really, how quip but demanding his tone was. And it actually didn’t sound demanding or bossy, Jeno was just explicit in what he wanted.

“O-Oh, well. It isn’t due till the end of… the next two weeks? How do you-”

Jeno suddenly clicks his tongue, raising a fine brow at him, if only Jaemin could squeal without shame.

“After classes, I don’t have much to do at home. We could stay here after class ends anyway.”

Jaemin hears a subtle cough from the distance and his eyes glance towards Renjun, who’s wiggling his brows and just looking so ugly at the edge of the classroom. Jaemin would smack that sly look on his face if he wasn’t so nice by heart.

“Y-Yes that works.”

And Jeno hums in finality, barely an inkling of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Jaemin watches Jeno as he sits up straight to shrug his bomber jacket off, he wore a plain black fitted shirt under it- accentuating his lean and toned body mind you- and was lightly tucked in his ripped jeans with a belt. Jaemin felt embarrassed really, with how amazingly prominent Jeno’s aura was. He glanced around and found a few eyes watching the stoic boy as well and at least he was able to heave a sigh- not feeling alone with his infatuation.

The entire time, Jaemin actually stayed awake in class, the thought of being alone with Jeno made his stomach swim and do nervous backflips. It’s not like he was expecting anything remotely cheesy or cliche to happen, Jeno just wasn’t that type of person, his crush on the boy made no difference because in the end Jaemin didn’t really even know him like that. He continuously doodled in the margins of his notebook page, eyes casually drifting to Jeno, his own notebook was out and his brows were slightly furrowed as he took broken notes down. The teacher rambled about the complexities of Hinduism, it’s 330 million gods and how it was considered a religion, but not really, and how rebirth and karma worked with this thing called Brahman.

Jaemin smiled a bit in amusement as he watched Jeno very slightly shake his head at some of the information. He suddenly felt a sense of dread wash over him, looking away from the handsome boy and at the stray leaves outside, his hand made random patterns without looking. Jaemin felt as if he was betraying his soulmate that he so often dreamed about, that he wanted to comfort for their unforgiving childhood up till now. It may be a phase, but the mere thought of stumbling into his soulmate while he was too occupied with Jeno made his heart sink to his stomach, it wasn’t fair that Jeno was slowly plaguing him and it wasn’t fair that Jaemin blamed Jeno for it.

He had first seen Jeno during Freshman year, three years ago, feeling embarrassed when he was caught staring by the mysterious kid. His first occurrence of the dreams of memories was at 10 years old, his child-like mind at the time was in love with the fact that he lived through different memories every night, his parents always joked that once Jaemin found his soulmate that they’d never be able to keep up with his hyper beagle personality. When he realized his crush on Jeno, he never advanced, feeling like the worst person in the world whenever he daydreamed about the older. Even Renjun would get annoyed at how randomly moody Jaemin would become, whining to him about his heart that was supposed to belong to his soulmate but was inherently stuck on a certain Lee Jeno.

Renjun explained to him that, “Soulmates are soulmates for a reason, even hoes have soulmates and they’ve probably loved a hundred people before finding their soulmate.”

That made the two snort, because what the fuck kind of advice was that. Nonetheless, Jaemin still thought it was terrible of him to feel such way, the impending doom of his soulmate somehow finding out that he’d been pining for someone else made him want to cry. Na Jaemin was truly a soft boy and no one could deny that.

Once class ended, Jaemin hadn’t even noticed that Jeno already disappeared. His seat was pushed and no trace of the handsome Lee Jeno to be found, so the younger automatically assumed that he had left for the day and probably wanted to meet the following class. He shook his head, no, he shouldn’t be thinking of him this much. At this point he wanted to just fall asleep and forget about the boy, dream about his soulmate once more to rejuvenate the profound fascination and care he has for the unknown person. Jaemin often wondered what kinds of memories his other half dreamt about as well, were his childhood memories pleasant enough? Did it make them feel worse because of how bright it was compared to their own?

His thoughts filled the various dreams he had for the last few years, being the last student to leave, Renjun always had to leave early because he lived a bit farther and had to catch a bus. Leaving Jaemin alone with his thoughts under the warm sunlight, he slung his bag over his shoulder and connected his earbuds to his phone then finally made his way out of the classroom, he was steadily listening to DaniLeigh’s Easy in peace until he sees a presence at the corner of his eye. Jaemin jolts and stands back as he exits towards the hall, feeling his chest squeeze when he realized that it was actually Jeno.

The _Lee Jeno_.

Jeno’s arms are lazily crossed against his chest as he steadily observes Jaemin, finally speaking after a short moment, “You take a while, huh?”

The younger flushes lightly, “N-No… I just don’t like the rush of the hallways, too many people.”

Jeno doesn’t take it beyond a hum and a nod, lifting his own bag to his shoulder as he speaks again, “Come with me, to the donut shop right across. I want to eat something.”

“Oh ok.” Jaemin says lamely, he doesn’t quite know this donut shop that Jeno was talking about.

He follows slightly behind Jeno as he quietly walks down the halls, it wasn’t until Jeno entered an unused staircase the Jaemin falls back, the older immediately sensing his apprehension as he slightly turns to look at him.

“Don’t worry. I’m not gonna drug you or anything. Too troublesome to take the main street and all the cars, it’s closer here.”

From there, Jaemin nods slowly and follows nonetheless, Jeno picks up a lone penny board behind the staircase as he pushes the door latch open for Jaemin. Lo and behold, there was the donut shop at the other side of low fence, Jaemin felt dumb all of a sudden.

“Let’s go.”

Once they entered the shop, Jeno places his bag down at a corner seat and leans his board on the corner and the meek Jaemin follows suit. He was about to go to the counter with the older when Jeno points at the seat.

“Stay here.”

Jeno was straight to the point and it seemed that he knew what Jaemin was thinking before he could even say anything, he frowned a little as he sat down, opting on waiting as he stared out the window. Jeno comes back after a few minutes with two coffee drinks in hand and immediately takes the blackened drink, sipping on it happily. Jeno sits down with his iced caramel latte and raises a brow curiously.

“You like… Americano?”

Jaemin nods happily and smiles, “Yes, I love it. Nobody else does because they think it’s bitter or too strong.”

It was then that Jeno goes silent and looks away, his face doesn’t give away anything that’s in his mind until he looks at him with a sharp and beady stare.

“Is that… weird?”

“It is, actually, I only ever knew one person who drank coffee so strong like that.” He comments shortly, not sparing another glance at the younger as he whips out his phone.

Jaemin does the same and his eyes almost pop out of its sockets when he realizes the time, it was already half past four! He almost gulps down half of his large drink and stands up, alerting Jeno who raises a brow at him.

“I’m supposed to meet Injun after school- ah!” Jaemin makes a soft noise of complaint and looks at the older apologetically, “Jeno-yah, I’m sorry if you wanted to study today. But I lost track of time and-”

His ramble stops when Jeno simply raises his hand, an inkling of a smile tugging at his lips, “You don’t have to apologize, it’s your free time not mine. But since you’re suddenly leaving me, I’ll take you home or wherever you need to go.”

Jaemin is a flustered mess as he watches him put on his jacket and sling his bag over his shoulder, he wants to deny it all because what the heck does Lee Jeno have to do with his hangout with Renjun? Absolutely nothing! Jaemin wouldn’t hear the end of it if Renjun spots him with his admirer. But of course, he’s tongue-tied and all Jaemin does is follow him, sipping on his drink extremely slowly so as to avoid conversation. He felt that Jeno was able to read him so easily it was scary, so he kept to himself, eyes set blank forward as he tries to ignore the heavy presence of Lee Jeno walking beside him.

Once Jaemin reaches the dorms, he’s relieved to see that Renjun wasn’t sneaking around anywhere or decided to surprise him. Yet he stops abruptly before entering the complex and shows Jeno a genuine smile, the older is slightly wide eyed when Jaemin looks at him as his hands were shoved in his pockets the entire time.

“This is me now, thanks Jeno-yah. I know we didn’t get to to study as you wanted, but I will next time, really.”

Jaemin’s little crush-butterflies are going ballistic inside of him, it only doubles when Jeno cuts in again. He thinks it’s so extra because Jeno grabs his hand and shoves his unlocked phone in his hand, Jaemin being shocked is practically an understatement at this point.

“I want your number, Jaemin. I want to talk to you anyway.”

Why the hell is Lee Jeno so blunt, hot and mysterious?!


End file.
